Racism and Intraracism in Janie’s Quest for Identity
“Color Struck” is a term used by African-Americans to describe people who epitomize lighter skin and Caucasian features as characteristics of great beauty (Ware 4). People from film-makers to modeling agencies demonstrate that Americans generally prefer lighter skin, which exemplifies the idea that there are numerous advantages to appearing more “white.” The authors of “The Skin Color Paradox and the American Racial Order” conducted a survey that found that “intraracial disparities are as detrimental to a person’s life chances as are disparities traditionally associated with racial divisions” (4). This idea that intraracism or “colorism” can significantly affect the lives of people based …show more content…
In her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston’s characterization of Janie’s possessive husbands and judgmental acquaintances as people who treat Janie differently based on differences in skin color reflects the theme that racism and intraracism can destroy relationships between people of the …show more content…
While the whites support her for standing up for herself (which is very likely the result of racial bias, as Janie is very much a white woman in comparison to darker-skinned blacks) the blacks turn against Janie, favoring Tea Cake and eagerly defending his loyalty as opposed to her betrayal by shooting him. The narrator highlights the difference in actions between the white and black women: “And the white women cried and stood around her like a protecting wall and the Negros…shuffled out and away” (Hurston 188). Janie suffers from a loss of support from the black people who she thought of as her friends, and she cannot completely associate herself with the whites, so she is “deprived of a community, since the black male and female witnesses oppose her, while the people who compose the jury and support her are all white men” (“Their Eyes Were Watching God”
“Color Struck” is a term used by African-Americans to describe people who epitomize lighter skin and Caucasian features as characteristics of great beauty (Ware 4). People from film-makers to modeling agencies demonstrate that Americans generally prefer lighter skin, which exemplifies the idea that there are numerous advantages to appearing more “white.” The authors of “The Skin Color Paradox and the American Racial Order” conducted a survey that found that “intraracial disparities are as detrimental to a person’s life chances as are disparities traditionally associated with racial divisions” (4). This idea that intraracism or “colorism” can significantly affect the lives of people based …show more content…
In her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston’s characterization of Janie’s possessive husbands and judgmental acquaintances as people who treat Janie differently based on differences in skin color reflects the theme that racism and intraracism can destroy relationships between people of the …show more content…
While the whites support her for standing up for herself (which is very likely the result of racial bias, as Janie is very much a white woman in comparison to darker-skinned blacks) the blacks turn against Janie, favoring Tea Cake and eagerly defending his loyalty as opposed to her betrayal by shooting him. The narrator highlights the difference in actions between the white and black women: “And the white women cried and stood around her like a protecting wall and the Negros…shuffled out and away” (Hurston 188). Janie suffers from a loss of support from the black people who she thought of as her friends, and she cannot completely associate herself with the whites, so she is “deprived of a community, since the black male and female witnesses oppose her, while the people who compose the jury and support her are all white men” (“Their Eyes Were Watching God”